Details have been released of the Lockerbie air disaster 20th year memorial events which will take place next month.
A series of public commemorations are planned in locations around the town on Sunday December 21 but they are going to be low key, in accordance with the wishes of the community.
The programme includes wreath laying at Dryfesdale Cemetery starting at 2 pm that afternoon with readings by the Lord Lieutenant and the US consul.
Free buses will run between the town hall and the cemetery for anyone wishing to attend.
There will also be an ecumenical service at Dryfesdale Church and a vigil at Tundergarth Church between 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm that night .
They have been timed to coincide with the actual time that Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.
Furthermore, the Dryfesdale Lodge Visitors’ Centre and Lockerbie Town Hall lesser hall will be open all day as designated ‘places to remember’ for visitors and townsfolk to attend and refreshments will be served in the town hall all day.
Meanwhile, two special TV programmes will be aired next month to mark the 20th anniversary.
The two-part Living Lockerbie will be shown on Border TV on December 4 and 11.
It has been made by filmmaker John Wallace, who was a 14-year-old pupil at Lockerbie Academy at the time of the disaster.
The first, entitled “Living Lockerbie: the media” examines the impact the arrival of journalists and news crews from around the world had on an already shocked community.
John said: “There were concerns raised at the time about how some of the media behaved in and around Lockerbie.
“What I didn’t know about was the groundbreaking work that went on to train local people to deal with reporters.”
He added: “It wasn’t pleasant for anyone who had to deal with that kind of attention, but lessons were learned and it did help to improve how the media behave in disaster situations.”
The second programme looks at some of the positive memorials that have been created over the last two decades to honour those who died.
John himself benefited from the scholarship programme, now in its 19th year, set up between Lockerbie and Syracuse University.
And 20 years on, victims’ relatives are still putting their hands in their pockets to support forward-looking projects, creating new memorials to their loved ones.
“I’ve been bowled over by the generosity of spirit I’ve found among people affected by the disaster -- there’s a real and ongoing effort to make good things come out of the tragedy,” he said.
“Knowing that, in the face of such a terrible loss, people can find the strength to try and build bridges like that -- it really gives you hope for the future.”
[From the Annandale Herald, Lockerbie's weekly local newspaper. Further details can be found in this article from another local newspaper, the Dumfries and Galloway Standard.]
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